The present invention relates generally to collaborative software systems within computer networks, and, more particularly, to a method and system for creating executable document and repository links within virtual workplace environments.
Workgroup software or groupware applications, which provide multiple users with the ability to collaborate on projects, are extremely powerful and increasingly popular tools for the performance of work by teams of people. Many such applications are available for such tasks as editing documents, holding chats and discussions, networking employment opportunities, managing accounts, providing help, and holding auctions, to name a few.
Traditionally, the use of a groupware application required the license of a groupware software product and the installation of the product on a server computer and possibly the client computers of the users. This limited the availability of groupware to those with the computer and financial resources to obtain and set up the necessary hardware and software components. A new type of groupware, terms user initiated groupware or UIG, was originally introduced in the form of the TeamRoom® groupware available from Lotus Development Corp. of Cambridge, Mass. Using the Instant! TeamRoom® groupware (or server version TeamRoom Plus® from IBM), a user having a personal computer and access to the Internet can set up a secure collaboration site, chose the team members, invite them in, and collaborate on a project by sharing documents and conversations. The user setting up the collaboration are site subscribes to the use of the group collaboration software by paying for the time the users actually use the collaboration site, thus saving on the expense of purchasing the necessary hardware and software.
One inconvenience associated with existing groupware products such as TeamRoom® relates to the sending of documents from databases to other participants within the defined collaborative group. Often times it is difficult to initially locate a particular document within the source database, If one member of a group sends an e-mail communication to other members with the subject document attached thereto, the other members may open and view the attachment document itself. However, this is not the same as another user being able to independently locate the document in the source database, which can be a difficult task.
Accordingly, it would be desirable for one user of a collaborative software product to enable other users to be able to independently locate a given document within a source database such that the other user(s) may, for example, view other related documents and view (at a later time) any updates to the original document.